Kate Welch is WotC's New D&D Designer

WotC has a brand new D&D designer, and it's Kate Welch! She plays Rosie Beestinger, the Lightfoot Halfing Monk in Acquisitions Inc's "C Team". She starts work on February 2nd. That's all I know for the moment, but more info if I hear it!

[video=youtube;fRsURJf4SjQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRsURJf4SjQ[/video]
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[darjr]

Wow Miswell, just say what your thinking. Stop hiding the ball.

The position is a big deal because it was the first open general call to the community that I recall. It was a big deal BEFORE she was hired. I even ask a round our local community because it was a weird open call for them.

 

[Azzy]

It's not that strange when the 'article' Morrus posted only talks about a new D&D Designer at WotC. I didn't know this person, so I went looking at what her pnp RPG publishing credentials were, there are none. I think that very strange that someone who has no pnp rpg publishing experience should be designing D&D products. Now, people have to start somewhere, but that usually isn't on D&D (the last two decades). Getting started with a 'lower ranked' publisher, sure, no big deal. But D&D is pretty much top dog in pnp RPG land.

Hiring a beautiful woman steeped in Geek culture does seem suspect with such little information. Especially with all the crap from both sides of the isle on the women in gaming issue over the last decade. That suspicion doesn't come to me naturally, ENworld.org and similar sites/blogs have 'educated' me on the matter. An education I would have liked to have skipped mind you!

So, what I'm getting here is that if the hire hadn't been a woman, and an attractive one at that, the forum wouldn't be in armchair quarterback mode in regards to the qualifications of the hire.

 

[redrick]

If it's not low level, then name one person below her on the design team. I am pretty sure the answer is "there is nobody". She is the lowest level of the design team. I mean are you arguing she has more responsibilities than some people on the design team of another company like Paizo or prior iterations of WOTC for prior editions or something? Because in terms of WOTC right now, this isn't a subjective question. As far as I know she is, literally, the lowest person on the totem poll for the design team.

I'm not sure where you are going with this? What is the point of minimizing her position as much as possible?

We go from, "cool, congrats, Wizards added somebody new to the D&D design team and she seems like a good addition to the team!" to "Wait, I'm not sure that she is qualified, let's go over her qualifications with a fine-tooth comb" to, "No worry, guys! There's no need to be sexist, her job is super insignificant!"

 

[Azzy]

Past entry-level jobs, "qualifications" are nearly always optional. Source: I'm a professional programmer on the high end of "senior" and I've never taken a CS class.

Irrelevant. WotC still has a better understanding of her qualifications than the community. Also, it's WotC that's hiring her, not the community.

 

[Kobold Boots]

So, what I'm getting here is that if the hire hadn't been a woman, and an attractive one at that, the forum wouldn't be in armchair quarterback mode in regards to the qualifications of the hire.

I think what people don't understand is that most people who are hired for jobs are not qualified to do them based on the majority of what's asked for in any job description. Success is determined by a few key traits in any job for any person and most of the requirements are to not be afraid to apply, not be afraid to take risks and be willing to listen and learn from the rest of your team.

I'd think for this sort of design role, which is junior but still responsible for quite a bit, passion and talent is way more important than experience. It's not like she doesn't have everyone else on the team to learn from and she just came out of nowhere.

So I'm going to chalk most of this thread up to.
1. Bunch of armchairs wishing they'd applied
2. Yes, some of it is misogyny, but you'll never get anyone to admit it.

Again, Congrats Kate.
KB

 

[Mistwell]

I'm not sure where you are going with this? What is the point of minimizing her position as much as possible?

I am not minimizing "her" position, I am minimizing the position itself as not that big a deal. It's not that the position is insignificant, it's that there have been a dozen people hired who are roughly as important to the team in the past few years and I have not seen any deal made out of those hires. I guess because this one was done through a community appeal rather than strictly through the HR department?

I don't understand why people would be up in arms about a simple design hire. I think she is perfectly fine for the job, I am just not sure why people seem so concerned about this position to begin with, when they had no concern over any other hires recently. And I guess I am coming to the conclusion it's because there was little to no coverage of those other hires, mostly because they were not done through a community appeal I guess?

 

[Mistwell]

Wow Miswell, just say what your thinking. Stop hiding the ball.

The position is a big deal because it was the first open general call to the community that I recall. It was a big deal BEFORE she was hired. I even ask a round our local community because it was a weird open call for them.

Yeah I am getting the sense that is in fact the difference here, the community appeal that was made. That doesn't make the hire more or less important than all the other hires that have happened in the past few years, but it does make it more highlighted for a community like this one.

 

[schnee]

Target audience.... I would say no.....powergaming community is never the target audience for a game, especially DnD. My point is that the designers should include their perspective as well as the other extreme of heavy roleplay when adding to the game

Dissenting opinion.

Nah, powergamers distort the game for everyone else in a negative way to a tremendous degree. They're also a distinct minority of the current audience. They're like the violent sociopath living in a warm, open, giving community that forces everyone else to lock their doors due to fear and intimidation. If anything, the game needs to dissuade them - there are way better systems for them *cough* Pathfinder *cough* and they belong with those systems instead.

 

[Parmandur]

I am not minimizing "her" position, I am minimizing the position itself as not that big a deal. It's not that the position is insignificant, it's that there have been a dozen people hired who are roughly as important to the team in the past few years and I have not seen any deal made out of those hires. I guess because this one was done through a community appeal rather than strictly through the HR department?

I don't understand why people would be up in arms about a simple design hire. I think she is perfectly fine for the job, I am just not sure why people seem so concerned about this position to begin with, when they had no concern over any other hires recently. And I guess I am coming to the conclusion it's because there was little to no coverage of those other hires, mostly because they were not done through a community appeal I guess?

How many of those other recent hires are primarily responsible for a third of the annual product?

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

 

[Mistwell]

How many of those other recent hires are primarily responsible for a third of the annual product?

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

This position is not responsible for a third of the annual sales though. A huge portion of the annual sales is the core books. This position is a lead designer on one new book a year, which will then be reviewed by a higher up designer, and then be reviewed by a higher up editor. So while not insignificant, it's about the same level as most of the other hires they'e made for art and content and editing over the years. That doesn't mean those people are as important to your personal interests - you may not be as into the art and editing and formatting and such as you are the design. But in terms of the D&D team itself, this is not on the level of "one third of the entire team's responsibilities". It's not even a management position as far as I know.

And understand where most of my difficulties are coming from is the ongoing claim, which as far as I know you've never made, that WOTC's D&D team is operating on "a skeleton crew". That claim has been made by several people here at ENW, and it's a false claim. The D&D team is much bigger than it used to be. And making a huge deal (130 posts so far) out of ONE new non-manager designer being hired just helps those "skeleton crew" claiming people reinforce their argument.

Which is what I am really after here - let's not reinforce that "skeleton crew" claim by making it seem like hiring one new non-managerial designer is hugely significant to the D&D team overall that it's like adding another 1/3 more of the team. That wasn't the intent of your argument, but I can guarantee that's the spin some others will put on it.

The position is meaningful. But, it's also in the context of a much larger team than what used to be at WOTC for D&D. Just because this one was done through a community appeal, doesn't mean all those other hires WOTC quietly engaged in through their normal HR department are diminished either, or that somehow this hire meaningfully increases the number of people working on the D&D team.

I am glad they hired someone for this position, and I think this person will be good in the position. Just, don't reinforce the trolls out there claiming D&D is operating on a skeleton crew by shooting off fireworks over a single hire like it's taken three years to hire one new person to the team.